Brown Trout Fest

I headed out early this morning to a nearby lake that has a surprisingly good population of brown trout. This time of year they are usually geared up and in full craziness due to the spawn. The fish slam streamers and buggers with abandon. After arrival and gear up I started the day with 8 strikes/hookups on my first 10 casts resulting in two fish landed. The insanity continued from there for the first 2 hours of the morning with buggers really appealing to the fish. As the morning progressed Eric arrived, and then Willi and Steve showed up as well. The egg bite seemed to take off in the late morning hours and I picked up a few on eggs, mostly males, but the egg bite is not nearly as fun as the destruction the fish level upon stripped flies. There tends to be a midday lull and today was no exception. I had a nice lunch and used the Jetboil to make some hot coffee. Eric and I basked in the sun and ate casually knowing the evening held more promise if the past was any indication of when to be on the water. The lull got to Willi and Steve and they decided to move to some other lakes and see what else was going on in the valley. Eric and I stuck it out and right on cue in the afternoon the brown trout masses moved in and were all around us. We were working a good mud line and you could pick fish up in any direction casting from our waist deep wade in location. The heavy strikes on the bugger continued on almost every cast. Eric and I finally called it a day about an hour before dark. It was perhaps the fastest bugger/streamer fishing I have ever had at this particular lake. Definitely a day to remember. I did manage one lone cutthroat in the mix as well. I was glad to find him in there mixing it up with the browns.

First fish of the day

Some nice browns mixed in throughout the day

A neat orange spawning spot on the underside of the jaw on this female

A male that liked the egg pattern

Willi fights a brown that dipped the indicator

My lone cutthroat on the day

Eric doing battle

Eric with a landed trout

One of the expansive vistas on the way home

Lunch Hour Double

I got out for a walk and decided to strip the leech to see who was active in some old haunts. Less than an hour to cast, but I got lucky and pulled a two species afternoon. The wind was brutal but enough at my back not to cast into the grass and blow out every hole. The rainbow was quite a surprise, this is typically predominant brown trout water. It felt good to walk the edges again.

Water Boatman Barrage

I took another crack at the plains lakes today and found some nice, big rainbows willing to go after the nymphs. Nothing up top again this time, even though I tried quite a bit. Water boatman were smashing the surface all over the stillness of the lake. I had no idea how many of them could materialize in the fall nor what their flight capabilities were. I had them continually bouncing off of me and the boat during the height of their activity. Fish were taking them just under the surface causing large boils across the still expanse of water. I boated about a third of the fish I hooked today but all were 20-24 inchers which makes for one heck of a nice day on the water.

Slower Day In The Wind

The wind was capping the lake today and although Eric, Floyd, and I headed out to take some shots on fish, it was tough fishing. We did manage some fish though and the ones we landed were stout rainbow trout that made you work down to the last second of netting them. Nymphing with PTs and midges was the key to the few fish we were able to take. Eric did get some on shore with the trusty hopper as well.

Good News Travels Fast

After a call with Shoe on Saturday night, he was packed and on his way Sunday with Willi in tow. They met up with Eric and I at the lake and we proceeded to have a great day for rainbows. I couldn't get the hoppers working on Sunday but the nymphing rig was producing and there seemed no reason to deviate from the hot subsurface action. As afternoon arrived, Eric decided to leave and Shoe and Willi curiously headed to another lake after a banner day, but I decided to hang around and see what would happen that evening. The nymphing continued to pay off but the sheer number of caddis landing on the surface of the lake later in the evening had fish sporadically rising. I switched over to a dry for a while but there were so many naturals on the water my caddis patterns were ignored. The massive volume of bug life descending on the water was incredible. It was really something to see. I called it a day as the sun waned and was thankful to have such a beautiful day of fishing with friends.